But the movie has a great deal of zest and charm, and Yakusho gets so exactly that crest of melancholy that is a mans early 40s, until he decides to go for another kind of life, that the movie is infinitely touching.

The film successfully walks the thin line between slick commercialism and "serious" realism. It is sentimental, but it comes by its sentiment honestly, through well-observed performances by the leads and a keen insight into the quirks of the Japanese middle-class culture.